Mayor Bass Takes Heat Over Wildfire Record in Fiery First L.A. Debate

The top contenders for the Los Angeles mayoral race traded sharp jabs Wednesday night as they squared off in their first face-to-face debate. Mayor Karen Bass, Councilmember Nithya Raman, and reality television personality Spencer Pratt took the stage at the Skirball Cultural Center, where they clashed over issues like wildfires, immigration, homelessness, public safety, and quality of life.Ms. Bass came under sustained fire during the one-hour debate, with both rivals scrutinizing her response to the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. Mr. Pratt, whose house burned down in the blaze, has blamed Ms. Bass for the destruction, arguing that she and other California officials mismanaged the city’s reservoirs and failed to prepare adequately. He focused his attack on the Santa Ynez Reservoir, which city officials drained in early 2024 for repairs and left empty when the Palisades fire ignited.“As mayor, I will never drain the reservoirs that we need for wildfire protection,” the former “The Hills” star said, pledging to establish 20 additional water sites across the city.Ms. Bass defended her record, arguing that her administration deployed an appropriate number of fire trucks but that staffing shortfalls — caused, she said, by former Fire Chief Kristin Crowley — were to blame for the response failure.Homelessness emerged as another fault line, with Mr. Pratt arguing the underlying driver was drug addiction. “The reality is no matter how many beds you give these people, they are on super meth, they are on fentanyl,” he said. Ms. Bass defended her signature Inside Safe program — which moves homeless individuals into hotels and motels — while Ms. Raman attacked it as too costly.“I don’t think anybody in Los Angeles right now can say that we are satisfied with spending extraordinary amounts of money on our homelessness response and getting only incremental progress,” Ms. Raman said. “I want to change that.”Ms. Bass countered that Inside Safe “is the only citywide program that we have had that has reduced homelessness two years in a row. Prior to that there was no citywide strategy and homelessness was going up year after year.”The debate also took an unexpected turn when Ms. Raman accused Mr. Pratt and Ms. Bass of teaming up against her, arguing that the two would rather run against each other in the general election.Mr. Pratt rejected her claims. “Mayor Bass and I are definitely not working together,” he said. “I blame this person for burning my house and my parents’ house and my town, all my neighbors, down.”Wednesday’s debate marks the first live face-off between the top mayoral candidates and comes just 28 days before voters go to the polls. Debates are expected to carry outsized weight as many voters remain undecided and support for the incumbent, Ms. Bass, has softened. A UCLA poll from April found Ms. Bass received support from 25 percent of likely voters, while Mr. Pratt trailed at 11 percent and Ms. Raman at 9 percent. Crucially, 40 percent of respondents said they were still undecided.Mr. Pratt stands out from the other two candidates as the only registered Republican and the only one without political experience. The 42-year-old reality TV personality announced his mayoral bid in January, on the one-year anniversary of the Pacific Palisades wildfires, which killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes. Ms. Bass was elected mayor in November 2022 after serving in the House of Representatives and the California State Assembly. Ms. Raman has represented Los Angeles’s 4th district in the city council since 2020. A member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Ms. Raman has drawn comparisons to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for her progressive stances on housing and affordability. Ms. Raman, formerly an ally of Ms. Bass, launched a surprise late-entry campaign and has sought to cast herself as an outsider.

Mayor Bass Takes Heat Over Wildfire Record in Fiery First L.A. Debate

Mayor Bass Takes Heat Over Wildfire Record in Fiery First L.A. Debate

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